By Sridevi Datta:
It’s almost midnight and my younger one just fell asleep with a copy of “Visual dictionary” in his hands after a snack of dosa and karapodi. Stuffing my mouth with the leftovers(another reason perhaps why inches keep adding at the wrong places…but about that maybe some other time), I set about browsing the net wanting to satiate my hunger perhaps in some other “intellectual” ways before the meaningless week began .
There I came across this article titled “Home truths on Career Wives” written by Mr Chetan Bhagat, which can be found here.
First of all, before proceeding any further let me make certain clarifications:
– I have nothing against the movie “Cocktail”
– Nor do I have anything against Chetan Bhagat or against “Successful Woman” or “Career Wives”, for that matter as the article puts it.
But what really bothered and niggled and had me rushing to this keyboard at this time of night is:
Are “CEO”s, “CFO”s and “COO”s the only career woman in Young India? How many women in India actually work in fashion, photography and software? Maybe just a handful, they are the cream of the nation and society and we should be rightfully proud of them.
But I am not talking about these women. I am talking about the other half or maybe the other seventy five percent of “working” women for whom even affording a maid is a luxury, who get jostled in the overcrowded buses and trains, who have to brave sweaty crawly palms on their skins before and after they reach their place of work, who sometimes are forced to overlook the lecherous look in their boss’s eye, who have to leave their sick child with a neighbour, and who after returning from their place of work have to supervise their kids’ homework , fix dinner, clean up the kitchen and finally crash out; but not before planning the breakfast for next day. The ubiquitous sales girl, the fatigued night shift BPO employee and the stressed out primary school teacher down the gali.
And what about those women who willingly stay at home just for the sheer pleasure of it ?Not because they are any less qualified or less talented but because they have made a conscious decision about it; do they have any less perfect marriages ?Or are their spouses any less proud of them .
Marriages in India are not all about “Exotic holiday destinations” and “sharing notes on office politics”. They are about keeping the home fires burning, instilling the right values in children, taking care of the elders in the family and yes, rolling that humble phulka just right
The rest as they say will follow.